H.L. Hunt

Haraldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. (17 February 1889-29 November 1974) was an American oil tycoon and conservative Republican political activist. He was born in Ramsey, Illinois in 1889, and he became a cotton plantation owner in Arkansas in 1912. After his plantation was flooded, he gambled his last $100 in New Orleans and won $100,000, using it to buy property in El Dorado, Arkansas, where he moved with his family. By trading poker winnings for oil rights, he ultimately secured the title to much of the East Texas Oil Field, one of the world's largest oil deposits. Hunt was also involved with politics, establishing the conservative evangelical Criswell College in Dallas and supporting ultra-conservative political causes. At the time of his death in 1974, he had a net worth of $1 billion, the highest net worth of any individual in the world. His son Lamar Hunt became a major player in the sports industry.